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NFL Owners Laughing all the way to the bank

I nearly puked when I saw that latest blown call in the Seattle Greenbay game last night. This will be the blown call heard around America. The NFL owners thought it wiser to hire division 3 referees and lingerie league rejects, (yes, you heard that right, the NFL has hired lingerie league referees than to give into the 3.2 million dollar demand of the officials. 3.2 million dollars represents the revenue of 2 Superbowl 30 second commercials or an extra $100,000 per team or the amount James Harrison is fined per year.

I've had issues for a long time about how the game is being run and the unfair practices the NFL owners wield over cities. Let's take the stadiums. These expensive stadiums are paid for by the taxpayers. Economists have done studies that show that the stadiums are an economic minus to a community. They don't create any real sustainable jobs. They end up costing more money per year than revenue generated. In other words, there are plenty of other projects a city could invest a billion dollars in and get a much better return and create many more sustainable jobs. The owner have the power and they trick the citizens into financing such economic nonsense. I say, make the owner pay for their own stadiums.

I have a vision that these owners are a bunch of old white curmudgeons, wearing polos and plaid shorts with gin and tonics in their hands at some fancy country club soriee joking about what suckers the NFL fan is. They are right. Anyone who has paid for NFL ticket, like me, is a sucker.

Since the internet revolution, sites like facebook and most others have thrived on traffic. If you got traffic to your site, you gonna make money. The more traffic, the more money. The NFL doesn't operate that way. They do everything they can to limit traffic. How dumb is that? First, they limit the number of seats in their stadiums which are built by taxpayer money. This insures that they can fill the stadium and the tv broadcast won't be blacked out in the local area. Why even blackout anything at all? Why even charge $200 for the NFL Ticket? If the owners were really savvy, they would broadcast the games for free. Yes, for free. They can do that over the internet. Why would they do that? Again traffic. More viewers means more ad dollars. Fewer viewers means less. If my team is not on TV, I'm not likely to watch any games. If my team is on TV, I'll watch that game and I'll watch maybe another. If you want to watch the games online for free without commercials you can go to firstrowsports.eu

Now, this brings me to the poor decision the owners made regarding the officials union. With so much at stake, the owners risked the reputation of the league over $3.2 million dollars. For people that are so skilled in business, this was a dumb decision. The effects of this decision will last for a long time. The owners should do the right thing at least for the sake of the fans and get the professional officials back in the game. If not, then they really don't care about you and me. They only care for our dollars. I will stop giving it to them. I hope you will join me.

What really, really, really pisses me off is not being able to watch all NFL games online. In this day and age it's still all about the TV Networks getting their air time and keeping games off the internet until after they are over. Who cares about preseason games online, they are still subject to blackout rules which are also BS!

You're telling me you can't find a way to maximize ad revenue online? If that's the case then your dumb *** should be fired as a marketing executive. Hell if anything you can place way more ads that are visible 24/7 online than you can run on TV.

Give us the option to watch them on our smart phones, every week, every time or at least listen to the broadcast through radio apps. You'd be surprised at how many won't stream the game audio via your smart phone but you can stream it on the regular computer?

The problem is I don't think the league is viewing quality referees as an actual "investment," which they are. Just because they see no immediate $$ benefit they believe it is not worth the time and money. Quality officials will improve the quality of the product, especially in the long run. Stats, records, etc. from this season will forever be indicated with an asterisk.

I have to disagree with you. It's a very smart business decision to lock them out. They are running a business that has become very successful for them. Does that give the officials the right to demand more than what they are worth? Hell no. They want a full pension but they are part time workers. No private company is going to do that. (Our state governments will but that's one reason why they are broke) They make on average about $8000 a game. That's $150,000 a year for a part time job that they screw up almost as much as the replacements. You pay people what they are worth not what you can.

I'd fire them all, hire the replacements full time and train them. In no time they would be doing a better job.

Last edited by LarryNJ; 09-25-2012 at 11:49 AM.

"When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself."
-Wayne Dyer

That might work in the short term, paying less for lesser quality. But, as these new officials become contracted long term by the league, they will unionize, and eventually this situation would repeat itself. In the meantime, while these refs get acclimated and gain experience, crap like last night will happen. I would also add that the players and owners will eventually take exception, and there will eventually be consequences for the league if officiating does not improve. After all this affects fans much less than it does the players. We as fans have very little stake in the officiating quality. The players and owners have everything.

And, something is worth is determined by what someone is willing to pay for it. Not what everyone else thinks!

Originally Posted by LarryNJ

I have to disagree with you. It's a very smart business decision to lock them out. They are running a business that has become very successful for them. Does that give the officials the right to demand more than what they are worth? Hell no. They want a full pension but they are part time workers. No private company is going to do that. (Our state governments will but that's one reason why they are broke) They make on average about $8000 a game. That's $150,000 a year for a part time job that they screw up almost as much as the replacements. You pay people what they are worth not what you can.

I'd fire them all, hire the replacements full time and train them. In no time they would be doing a better job.

Just because you're a tax payer you feel entitled to be able to watch every game for free? The cities help build the stadiums, not to let you watch all the football games for free, but for the increases in revenue and business.

I heard a lot of the same when it came to the players union agreement, "just pay them". Well if they just paid everyone who wanted more money they would be out of business wouldn't they? The ugly truth is the refs are wanting a pension for a part time job. You know of any places that pay part time employees a pension? You have to look at who is actually being greedy in the situation. The NFL agreed to the pay increase for the refs, but not the pension plan.

I hate the agreement with Directv as well as anyone. I understand it's probably a better decision for the NFL to lock up a several year deal with Directv instead of airing all the games freely and hoping to get more money from advertising. Directv should offer a streaming service for games so they can be watched online. I would like to see them offer a NFL-only package where I don't have to pay for other channels other than football. The reason I'm dropping Directv is because the only thing I watch is football and it's not worth the cost of signing a 2 year contact.

The same people that want the owners to pay out to the players and the refs whatever they want also complain that ticket prices are going up. Once again they are in business to make money, if you want them to pay people more expect to pay more. It's the same reason why the price of products go up when companies are taxed more. The cost gets past on down to the next person, who is ultimately the consumer. I will say that the price of tickets kept me from going to the Steelers-Cardinals game last year, but I understand why it costs that much with that stadium they built.

I love the fact that you associate the owners as, "old white curmudgeons, wearing polos and plaid shorts with gin and tonics in their hands at some fancy country club...".

My answer to the referee problem is to drop all the striking refs and start fresh next year. The new refs should be full time employees that are held accountable for the blatantly bad calls they may make. If they are full time they should have the rules down pat without much question. Hell this is the only way I can see them able to learn all the new GODell rules that get implemented in every year.

I have a suggestion while they are either negotiating a new contract or training the new refs. Have all reviews decided in New York not by the on field officials. They do it in hockey, anytime there's a review it's reviewed in Toronto not by the game refs.

Originally Posted by Speeed

And, something is worth is determined by what someone is willing to pay for it. Not what everyone else thinks!

That's very true and obviously so far the owners are not willing to give the officials what they ask for. So I guess they aren't worth it!

Last edited by LarryNJ; 09-25-2012 at 01:03 PM.

"When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself."
-Wayne Dyer